Collaboration takes place in six conference rooms, including the board room, rather than in managers' offices.
— Howard Lipin

The Organization Man's career goal was the corner suite -- as portrayed in "The Office" and "Mad Men."

No more.

Visit Balfour Beatty's offices in Scripps Ranch and you'd be hard pressed to spot the top dog's office.

Eric Stenman, southwest regional CEO, occupies an small office barely big enough for himself and a visitor. His other managers sit in similarly low-status spots far from the windows and views toward the ocean.

By contrast, the 60-some worker bees sit at light-filled desks, separated by low-standing movable walls and located along the windows.

Is this the result of an Occupy Balfour Beatty revolt?

"Our people are our most important asset, no question about it," Stenman said. "We looked at it and in the old world of doing things, you put the VP offices on the exterior You had people worked in high-walled cubicles on the interior with fluorescent lights that were not healthy."

Starting in November 2011 when the company decided to move to its new location on Treena Street, the executives decided a new approach was called for.

"We believe in innovation and to be innovative, you need to be collaborative," he said. "We wanted our space to be conducive to that environment."

Chiefs and crew formed subcommittees to choose colors, design, space layouts and other details.

The theory behind the anti-corner office was that managers need to be easily accessible and the staff should feel free to communicate in an unwalled setting.

"Lower the cubicle walls so we can see people and they can see us," Stenman said. "Give them daylight and views and we will get daylight and views by virtue of our glass fronts."

Two issues were easily overcome -- privacy and noise.

Private rooms are available to maintain confidentiality and workers who can't concentrate over the noise talking wear headphones.

To promote collaboration and team work, there are six conference rooms - twice as many as before at the 4S Ranch location -- and a coffee bar and lunch room make it easy to take a break.

Outside are a putting green, horseshoe pit and a half-court for basketball where the company holds "triathlons" and hands out Padres tickets for the winners.

The result?

"In the old place the clock strikes a certain hour and they're just out of here - there's no smile on their faces," Stenman said. "Here, sometimes I'll leave at 7 p.m. and people are still doing stuff. 'I'm catching up on stuff.'"

Many use the lunchroom to continue working.

"The productivity we've seen in this office building has been just a universal change," he said.

Lately, other Balfour Beatty execs have dropped by and said they want to remodel their spaces similarly.

"We just had an industry open house and had some owners, design partners and subcontractors," he said, " and they all came in and said the same thing -- 'This so great, so collaborative.'"

And what about loss of ego and status?

"That doesn't drive me and that doesn't drive our culture," he said. "We all have different degrees of decision making and at the end of the day, there's one decision maker and it's me. The fact is in our culture is we don't display (status) in a way that draws attention, which I think is kind of negative."